Kung fu dreams

10:14, May 15, 2013

Students spar with each other at the gym. (China Daily/Yin Di)

They are three foreigners who share a passion for an ancient Chinese art. They traveled halfway across the globe to realize their vision of opening up a gym to share their knowledge of martial arts learned in Brazil and Europe. Belle Taylor reports.

Up a narrow stairwell in a gym above a coffee shop in Beijing's Wangjing area, three friends from opposite ends of the globe, Norway and Brazil, are working hard at creating their own version of the Chinese dream.

They are not manufacturing products to export, or selling foreign made goods to the booming Chinese market - they are building a martial arts gym, bringing an international flavor to an ancient Chinese discipline.

"We have been friends for a long time and we started to talk about plans to open a gym in Scandinavia," says Brazilian Luciano Queiroz. "But we talked things over and we saw that it was going to be much better to come to China because China is growing so fast."